Voice for Equality: Tyne Daly

April 21, 2009

Actress Tyne Daly is best known for her portrayal of detective Mary Beth Lacey in the television show Cagney and Lacey, Tyne Daly is a strong feminist who uses the same force in her acting roles as she does when taking on opponents of marriage equality.

In the fall of 2008 Daly appeared with several other notable straight allies (such as Amy Brenneman and Dolores Huerta) in a series of public service announcements entitled "Stop the Hate, Vote No on Prop 8", concerning California's Proposition 8 which ultimately passed and rescinded the state's freedom to marry law. Besides serving as a strong, can-do role model for women and feminists alike, Daly reinforces the fact that one doesn't have to be gay to support marriage equality.

On one of her stops during the "Stop the Hate, Vote No on Prop 8" campaign, Daly recalled her former marriage to an African American and told of her own experiences with marital discrimination, thus bolstering her support for marriage equality: "When I got married," Tyne Daly recalled of her marriage to African-American actor Georg Stanford Brown, "my marriage was illegal in seven states in this country. ...Government can't dictate hearts and minds. But it can decide law, and when laws [change], other things change."

Freedom to Marry thanks Chaya Himelfarb for nominating Tyne Daly as a Voice for Equality!

Freedom to Marry was the campaign to win marriage nationwide. With the Supreme Court victory on June 26, 2015, the work of this strategic campaign – though not the larger movement – was achieved, and Freedom to Marry wound down its operations, closing in early 2016. For inquiries, please email legacy@freedomtomarry.org.